RallyNorth.net

Tue, Dec 11, 2007 07:00 PM @ Gloucester

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
Winthrop	13	19	16	19	67
Gloucester	17	13	12	13	55

Fishermen fall in opener, but improvements are expected

Wednesday, December, 12 By Matt Langone
Sports editor

Nobody can knock the effort put forth by the Gloucester High School boys basketball team last night in the season opener against Winthrop.

However, much to the dismay of the Fishermen, hard work doesn't always equal a victory. That lesson was once again reinforced as Gloucester fell to the Vikings, 67-55, at home to start the year 0-1.

Nevertheless, Fishermen fans need not worry because Gloucester head coach Todd Simendinger expects the wins to come in due time.

"We only have about a quarter of our offense in right now," said Simendinger. "I think in two weeks people will see a much different team."

Simendinger believes that Winthrop is the most physical team that his squad will see all year, so it was a very positive sign that his bunch out-rebounded the Vikings 32-26 led by junior Bryan Chiancola (12 rebounds) and senior Cam Marston (eight rebounds).

Many of those rebounds came on the offensive end for the Fishermen. Unfortunately, the problem all night for Gloucester was finishing, as they missed several second-chance, point-blank opportunities.

"We missed a lot of opportunities in the first half, which prevented us from building a big lead," Simendinger said. "We weren't able to hit the easy shots and that's a credit to Winthrop's defense.

Gloucester led 17-13 after the first quarter sparked by senior Brian Levie. The captain was on fire in the first quarter with 13 points and had 18 at the half with four 3-pointers.

The problem was Levie was the only real scoring-threat for Gloucester through the first 16 minutes, and it allowed Winthrop to climb back in and ultimately take a 32-30 lead into the half.

Point guard Gavin Mahoney (game-high 22 points) tossed in 13 points of his own in the first half to lead the Vikings. Winthrop stormed out of the locker rooms to start the second half, creating turnovers, limiting Levie's touches and in the process making Gloucester find other scoring options.

Freshman Chris Unis (14 points) and Chiancola (10 points) were able to finish the game in double-figures but it was clear that the second half adjustments on Levie took a toll on the Fishermen. Levie finished the game with 21 points and five rebounds.

"They (Winthrop) went zone and that limited Brian's (Levie) looks," said Simendinger. "Brian is a really good player and he is going to be the target of every team we play against. We'll just have to do a better job of creating shots for him." The Vikings backcourt duo of Mahoney and Gino Mallios (16 points) proved to be too much for Gloucester down the stretch, as the pair made all the big plays and created open looks for center Mike Visco (eight points) and forward John Murdock (nine points, four rebounds).

The hope for Simendinger is that his young team, which is blessed with what seems to be a strong knack for rebounding, will get more production from his bigs.

"It will be situational," said Simendinger. "We hope Bryan (Chiancola) will get his usual 12 boards, and then we'll get eight to 10 from three or four other guys. We'll need a strong post presence to compete."